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What Americans think about Hegseth, Gabbard and key Trump Cabinet picks AP-NORC poll
By LINLEY SANDERS and MEG KINNARD
Updated 6:11 AM CST, December 12, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for high-level positions in his incoming administration face scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts.
Relatively few Americans overall approve of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Defense, or Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for intelligence chief, although a substantial share doesn’t know who those figures are. The other selections who were included in the poll, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and Marco Rubio for secretary of state, are more well-known but not much more popular among Americans overall.
Trump and his allies are pushing Republican senators to confirm his picks, who are meeting with lawmakers before Trump returns to the White House next month. Given the Republicans’ slim majority in the Senate, the stakes are high for each Trump pick. ...
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